Keckermann, Bartholomeus

Keckermann, Bartholomeus a reformed German theologian, was born at Dantzic in 1571, and educated it Wittenberg, Leipsic, and Heidelberg. In the last place he became professor of the Hebrew language about 1592. In 1602 he accepted the rectorate of the' gymnasium at Dantzic, where he died August 25, 609. Keckermann wrote many theological and philosophical works, the most important of which are Systema Theologiao (Berlin, 1615, 4to), and Rhetorica Ecclesiasticce (Hanau, 1600,1613, 8vo). These are circulated very extensively, and prove him to have been a writer of great originality and ability. He argued in behalf of a separation of philosophy and theology, to prevent any further mischief to Christianity such as scholasticism had caused, and in his Systema Ethices (ibid. 1610, 8vo) he pleads for the separation of ethics, as a philosophical science, from theology; the latter, he argues, must confine itself to the inner religious life, the former to the "bonum civile" (Opp. ii, 233 sq.). In view of these, his own teachings, it is unjust to classify this writer, as some have done, among the originators of Protestant scholasticism. Of value, also, are Keckermann's speculations on the Trinity (comp. Baur, Dreieinigkeitslehre, 3:308 sq.). His works have been published entire (Opera Onnia) at Geneva in 1614. See Herzog, Real-Encyklopddie, 7:463.